Compiled by Ron ([email protected])
This list is the work of many people. I started in 1998 with a basic list that I pulled off of the web.
That list had been compiled by Hugh Stegman, a highly respected radio hobbyist and columnist for
Monitoring Times. In the intervening years I have added callsigns that I myself have heard and
verified as well as those from various “seasoned”, respected milcomer’s and HF utility
communications hobbyists here in the US as well as Europe.
Background:
One has to take most military calls with a grain of salt. They are often used by more than one unit.
Also, the US military is closing bases left and right, moving and combining things, transferring
tasks to the reserves, and the like. For basically historical reasons I have left in many of the daily
changing tactical callsigns used by the Offutt & Tinker units. We may not see them again, but then
again they could be reused.
A callword is a station identifier without numbers, such as Mudbug Control. A callsign is one with
numbers, such as Abnormal 10. Static callsigns/callwords of air tankers tend to associate with
gasoline, gas stations, or fuel in general, though the association gets pretty vague. Fighters are
more macho. A few callsigns/callwords are acronyms, such as ARIA (Advanced Range
Instrumentation Aircraft), JOINT STARS/JSTARS (Joint Surveillance Tactical Radar System),
SPAR (Special Priority Air Resource); and SAM (Special Air Mission).
Many CPs, Air National Guard or CAP units, and the like, derive callwords from geographical
characteristics of their locations, i.e AK-SAR-BEN (Nebraska backwards, and a popular horse
track), MUDBUG (near the Mississippi "big muddy" delta, where mudbug crabs are found), and
HIGH ROLLER (Nevada ANG, Reno).
AIRCRAFT CALLSIGNS:
There are several “systems” that I have noted over the years.:
Transports: Callsign + 1 or 01 is usually the unit commander’s callsign. Callsign +2 or 02 is usually
the deputy unit commander. Reach callsigns suffixes are usually either a mission number or some
variation on the aircraft tail number.
Fighters: Callsign + 81 or 91 appear to be travelling callsigns used on cross-country, special
activity and out-of-area flights. Some units have special callsigns they use when travelling out of
area so the number used may not correlate with the 81/91 system. Normally, fighters use callsign
+ 11, callsign + 21, etc. One explanation I’ve read (which makes sense to me) is that the first unit
sortie of the day is callsign + 11, the second sortie is callsign + 21 and so on. Another theory is
that the suffixes are determined by the day of the week, i.e. 11 is used on Monday, 21 on Tuesday
and so on.
NOTE #1: TO THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE, THE CALLSIGNS IN THIS LIST ARE FROM
UNCLASSIFED SOURCES---NO CLASSIFIED INFORMATION HAS BEEN KNOWINGLY INCLUDED IN
THIS LIST.